I do not believe in revealed religion — I will have nothing to do with your immortality; we are miserable enough in this life, without speculating on another. – Lord Byron, 1778-1824, letter to Rev. Francis Hodgson, 1811

God made everything out of nothing. But the nothingness shows through. РPaul Val̩ry, Mauvaises pens̩es et autres, 1942

[M]an is a machine made expressly for sorrow; he has only five senses with which to receive pleasure, and suffering comes to him through the whole surface of his body…. The man who does not suffer is an ill-made machine, an imperfect creature… – Claude Tillier (1801–1844), My Uncle Benjamin: A Humorous, Satirical, and

I would ask something more of this world, if it had something more. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin